The charge laid against Adam Crozier, the former Football Association chief executive, was always one of style rather than substance.

Crozier, who studiously avoided wearing a tie and once even took one off to have his photo taken, always exuded warmth and spent time courting many of the leading football journalists to boost his public profile.

However, having pushed ahead with much-needed reform too quickly for many at the FA, he annoyed too many Premier League powerbrokers with what they saw as spin and subterfuge, and paid the ultimate price.

His successor, Mark Palios, was smartly suited and booted, tanned and even wearing a tie at his first press conference since taking up his elevated position in the game's firing line.

This, however, was clearly a man full of substance.

A City accountancy and insolvency expert, as well as a former Tranmere and Crewe professional, he is part of a growing breed of men with feet in both camps, following on from Chelsea's chief executive Trevor Birch, an ex-Liverpool trainee.

Palios had been in his new job only three weeks but already seemed to have a firm handle on the FA tiller, declaring the problematic finances to be "stable", albeit after a wave of redundancies.

So much for substance. Where he still lacked some polish, rather understandably, was in the area of style. Or at least in terms of presentation.

When he relaxed, 50-year-old Palios allowed his charm to shine through, revealing how he had suffered a double cardiac arrest during a Three Counties Cup game 18 months ago after a challenge on the pitch.

Recovering in hospital, he resolved to play - and score - again. That was a goal he realised last Christmas and he is clearly not a man to be underestimated.

Otherwise, however, Palios was rather too full of business-speak. Only when he spoke of once watching Malcolm Allison take a training session "on angles", did his obvious love of the game truly shine through.

He will quickly learn, however, that there are some matters which transcend the bottom line on a set of accounts. And one of them is the proposed national football centre at Burton.

This is English football's answer, albeit almost ten years late, to the French academy of Clairefontaine, which spawned the generation of Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet that won the World Cup in 1998.

The project would cost more than £50m and some clubs argue that it is a waste of money as they already have their own academies.

However, just consider why the Australians are the best in most sports and then take a look at their development system if you are still stumped.

To be the best you have to be trained by the best in the best facilities. This, after all, would be the finishing school to prepare the cream of the crop for the England team. Surely nothing can be more important to the development of the national game.

Palios, however, revealed that the entire project is under review while he seeks advice from across the game. It was a pragmatic answer, certainly an honest one, but definitely not the right one.

The FA's new chief executive should have firmly safeguarded the future of the project, while looking for ways in which to make it work best.

Let us hope he comes to that conclusion. For the sake of the national game, that is a matter of substance as well as style.